Month: July 2016

So I haven’t blogged in a while in general. I got stuck into a fiction piece when I came back from this trip that I’m still working on and have gotten out of the routine of blogging.

But today I have a few minutes to catch up and document a bit about my last trip away. I revisited Amsterdam with my good friends Eimear, Ryan and Jack. A change to have home company this time and had another great travel experience. We used Air bnb for the first time and had a lovely apartment a little outside the city, but close enough to jump on and off trams in and out.

Having seen the city before there was no pressure to sight see, no imminent need to see and do everything. We were just there for a break and some fun. We did a fair bit of wandering around, mainly art galleries because the weather wasn’t fantastic enough to wander around outside every day. We went to a Banksy Gallery and The Van Gogh Museum as well as a few independent modern art galleries. It was fairly educational, and relaxing for a friends holiday! Luckily my company are also into art and relaxing and not trying to treat every holiday like a binge drinking session. It was fairly tame, although we did stop for beers here and there and have a few drinks back in the apartment each night. But in a way that was generally classy and in no way excessive or unruly.

Twice it was nice enough to go to the park and that was great, Amsterdam has great parks! Vondelpark on a good day is up there with Central Park in NY or Madrid’s Park Retiro. Havens of fun.

Also havens of fun was watching the Euros in a lesbian bar on Elandsstraat over a few beers. We met a retired policeman who told us about the growth of Amsterdam’s LGBTQ community over the last thirty years and who had been to Ireland and had a few cheeky stories about his escapades around Dublin’s gay scene in the 80s and the hot Gardaí officer he met there.

My only regret on this holiday was that I was a little distracted. Before I left to go on the trip I’d had a really promising date and I was looking forward to the next one. I spent a lot of the trip thinking about it and inevitably texting and contemplating the start of something new. Then I got back and a few days later and found that the date and potential new thing were cancelled, not by me…and so I felt like I wasted a lot of energy on the trip on someone who didn’t deserve it and I was daydreaming about the future when I could’ve been living in the moment and enjoying it. What can you do though, live and learn! And move on.

Here are some random photos of the trip and my friends, and a big congratulations to Eimear and Ryan who got engaged just after we got back. They’re a fantastic duo and doubly fantastic because they found out where to buy (and bought me) my very own drinking game like the one that got us joyously through a few rainy evenings in our apartment.

My arty friend Jack discussing a free art wall in a contemporary art gallery. Light Installation. My favourite kind of installation. A drinking game I will be buying for Irish friends. This is Stefan Stunt Pilot, also known as Louis Loop pilot. Many hours of fun! Finding work related paraphernalia in an Amsterdam gay culture magazine. Love to work for this company. I wish I’d gotten this artists name – what a piece!My friends, merry-eyed by the canals. Modern art – appreciate it! Reading is fun! This trip was ‘the cats pyjamas’.